iv PREFACE. 
- 
Minds, at once elightened and amiable, viewing both in their 
proper proportions, will however render the equitable verdict ; 
Non ego paucis offendar maculis.— 
It is not pretended that this Journal has been faultless; there 
may be communications in it which had been better omitted, 
and it is not doubted that the power to command intellectual 
eflort, by suitable pecuniary reward, would add to its purity, as 
a record of Science, and to its richness, as a repository of dis- 
coveries in the Arts. 
But the editor, even now, offers payment, at the rate adopted 
by the literary Journals, for able original communications,* con- 
taining especially important facts, investigations and discoveries 
in science, and practical inventions in the useful and ornamental 
As however his means are insuflicient to pay for all the copy, 
it is earnestly requested, that those gentlemen, who, from other 
motives, are still willing to write for this Journal, should continue 
to favor it with their communications. That the period when sat- 
isfactory compensation can be made to all writers whose pieces 
are inserted, and to whom payment will be acceptable, is not dis- 
tant, may perhaps be hoped, from the spontaneous expression of 
the following opinion, by the distinguished editor of one of our 
principal literary Journals, whose letter is now before me. “The 
character of the American Journal is strictly national, and it is 
the only vehicle of communication in which an inquirer may be 
sure to find what is most interesting in the wide range of topics, 
which its design embraces. It has become in short, not more 
identified with the science than the literature of the country.” It 
is believed that a strict examination of its contents will prove that 
its character has been decidedly scientific ; and. the opinion is 
oo a 
* Of course, with liberty reserved, to return those which are not adapted te 
his views, or which are beyond his means, : 
